Ada Lovelace Day!

As regular blog readers will know, this year’s Earth Science Week is only one month away! Events are being planned up and down the country to celebrate the diverse geology of the UK and Ireland – let us know if you have plans.

Every year, we plan the week to coincide with its sister event in the United States – but America’s Earth Science Week isn’t the only celebration we overlap with. In the UK, Ada Lovelace Day takes place on the second Tuesday of October – which this year will be 11th October, right in the middle of Earth Science Week!

Ada Lovelace, 1815-1852 (Wikipedia)

Ada Lovelace Day began in 2009, founded by Suw Charman-Anderson, to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. Taking as its mascot the nineteenth century mathematician Ada Lovelace, the day last year featured over 150 independently organised events, in 82 cities, in 25 countries.

As well as talks, debates, comedy and music happening around the world, the flagship event is Ada Lovelace Day Live! – a ‘science cabaret’ event in London, at which women in STEM give short talks about their work or about other women who have inspired them, or perform short comedy or musical interludes with a STEM focus.

Events celebrating Ada Lovelace Day can take any form – why not organise a joint Ada Lovelace Day/Earth Science Week event, celebrating the achievements of women in geology? We’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime, the ALD team have just started a podcast, and episode two is a geology special! Head over to the ALD blog to listen to Hazel Gibson talking about her research into geoscience cognition and communication, and volcanologist Erik Klemetti on one of his geological inspirations, Professor Anita Grunder.